Michael Ford, the Premier’s nephew, looks to make a name for himself in the Ontario government

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Michael Ford knows it was his family name that helped him get elected when he ran for municipal politics in 2016, filling the council seat left vacant by the death of his uncle and former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

He was only 22, after all, and Rob Ford was a fixture in the city’s west-end Etobicoke community.

“I’ve benefited from that – running at an early age. And, you know, I set out to say, ‘Look, I’m gonna work my butt off.’ And I saw how Rob did it,” Mr. Ford said. “The public will determine if you’re up to the task. Right?”

A veritable veteran at 29, Mr. Ford has almost a decade of political experience behind him. He’s gone from school trustee, to two-time city councillor, to member of the provincial legislature – and now a minister.

Elected in the riding of York South-Weston in last year’s provincial election, Mr. Ford was named Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism in the government led by his other uncle: Premier Doug Ford.

Almost a year into his job as a rookie cabinet minister from a well-known political family, his task now is to make a name for himself.

He acknowledges that there’s “always been an element” of people who think he was only given the role because of his family ties, but he says that hasn’t been an issue in the dozens of meetings he’s had with community groups over the past year.

“When you go on Twitter … yes, there’s no question that that was a thing,” Mr. Ford said recently, during a lunch interview in his office near Queen’s Park. “That has never come up in a direct way.”

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Instead, he said he focuses on building bridges between the government and different ethnic and cultural communities, and it’s his job to make sure everyone “feels safe, feels welcome, feels accepted” in the province. He announced on Friday that the province will offer new security grants to religious and minority groups. He has also been involved in organizing Ontario’s coronation celebration, including a royal fair at Queen’s Park on Saturday.

While they may share some familial similarities, Mr. Ford and the Premier (who is the brother of Mr. Ford’s mother, Kathy Ford) are a study in contrasts. While Doug Ford appears to embrace the bluster of partisan politics, his nephew casts a collaborative, and at times exceedingly earnest, figure. He refers to his uncle repeatedly as “the Premier” during an interview, and takes pains to portray himself as just a regular member of the team.

“I’d say he lets ministers lead, he does, around the cabinet table. He does not, you know, get involved. He doesn’t micromanage and treats me the same way,” Mr. Ford said of the Premier. “Maybe I have … a little bit of a harder beating if something happens that doesn’t go well. But that’s, you know, that’s fine.”

Michael Ford’s time in the role has largely flown under the radar, although he did flub a line during a visit to India, accidentally saying there were 900 – not 900,000 – people from India living in Ontario. And he was called out by NDP Leader Marit Stiles on Twitter for a line about a community organization in one of his newsletters, that suggested a group of racialized teens had to be “integrated” into society. He responded to Ms. Stiles, saying that “different words should have been used.”

He recently entertained an NDP proposal to create “safe zones” for drag performers, saying the government will consider it. He also said he would “absolutely” walk in a Toronto Pride parade, something the Premier has said he won’t do unless police in uniform are welcomed back.

Ms. Stiles said she did not understand why it was Mr. Ford, and not the Premier or the Attorney-General, responding to her questions about her party’s bill calling for safe zones. “I don’t know what the Minister for multiculturalism has to do with defending drag artists, but I hope that we will see full government support for that legislation,” she told reporters.

Asked what she made of Mr. Ford’s performance as a Minister, Ms. Stiles, who served with him as a Toronto school board trustee, said she had always worked well with him, but then alluded to a controversy over his elevation to cabinet as a rookie MPP.

“I have always worked well with Michael Ford. I can’t speak to whether or not there were any issues within his own caucus around that appointment. I mean I guess it’s on the Premier,” she said.

While the Premier has been known to be highly protective of his family, Michael Ford is relatively open about the struggles of the past.

Before being elected as a Toronto school trustee at 20, he took his mother’s last name, and dropped that of his father, Ennio Stirpe. Mr. Ford said he took on the Ford name because he was primarily raised by his grandmother, the late Diane Ford, and grandfather, Doug Sr., who died in 2006.

Both his mother and father struggled with substance abuse, and Mr. Stirpe has been jailed for violent offences. Mr. Stirpe was convicted of manslaughter when Michael was very young after fatally shooting one of his mother’s boyfriends with a shotgun. Later, he was reimprisoned for a vicious knife attack on an ex-girlfriend.

Mr. Ford said he viewed his three uncles – Rob, Doug and Randy – as his father figures. He remains close with his mother, whom he says is doing “so much better,” but hasn’t spoken to or seen his father in several years.

“He is incarcerated. So, no, I haven’t, not for a while,” Mr. Ford said.

He credits his grandmother, who died in January of 2020 after a battle with cancer, with setting him on the straight and narrow, calling her “the foundation of my life.”

He acknowledges that he has experienced a lot of hardship and loss but so have many others.

“I’ve seen my speed bumps and my challenges,” he said. “You learn from the past, you learn from mistakes, you learn from whatever you’ve seen, and, you know, try and be a better person and let that be a part of you.”

With a report from Jeff Gray in Toronto